Canucks 4 – 3 Oilers

This was an odd game. At times it was thrilling, at other times, excruciatingly slow. It was the I Am Legend of hockey games.
While Edmonton relied on their high-flying Kid Line to create offense, the Sedins and Burrows provided the bulk of the offensive push for the Canucks. In the end, however, the hero came from neither trio: it was the secondary scoring from senior citizen Sami Salo that pushed the Canucks’ veterans over the Oilers’ youth. I watched this game.

Keith “Hips” Ballard may have finished minus-1 in his 17:58 of icetime with no shots on goal, but he had a solid game and was the star of a series of hipcheck highlights: early in the game he devastated Taylor Hall with a hipcheck as clean as the one he laid on Henrik Zetterberg that earned a clipping call. Later in the game, Hall tried to avoid a similar fate by stepping around Ballard and instead had his feet swept out from under him. Hall needs to be careful or he’ll blow a knee out.

The hipcheck everyone will be talking about, however, is the one that sent Darcy Hordichuk flying. Hordi chirped pre-game about going after the Sedins. Perhaps as a tuneup, he attempted to lay out Ballard with a late hit early in the game, but Ballard got set and lowered his hip into Hordichuk, sending the Oilers’ grinder arse over teakettle. Hordichuk left the game with a knee injury. In his 5 seconds of icetime, he was somehow credited with one hit. Incidentally, Ballard was also only credited with one hit. That’s right: they counted Ballard’s destruction of Hordichuk as a hit for Hordichuk. If you need evidence that hit-counters in NHL arenas are either terrible or biased, here you go.

Ballard is the only player in the NHL whose defense mechanism is a spectacular hipcheck. Heck, he’s the only mammal. Faced with a larger predator? Hipcheck. Surrounded by howler monkeys? Hipcheck. The only reason there are no photos of Ballard fighting bears is that the bears have all been flipped head over heels and are lying on the forest floor in pain before the photographer can even get his camera out.

For the first time this season, the Canucks opened the scoring, as Sami Salo stepped into a slap shot from the slot that broke both the plane of the goal line and the sound barrier. You have to give Devan Dubnyk a lot of credit for playing the rest of the game deaf.

The craziest thing about that goal is that it only looks like it bounces into the slot by accident. Watch closer. That was actually a blind backhand pass from Cody “Silent G” Hodgson to set up the goal. It’s an absolutely incredible play. Surprisingly, the crew in charge of tallying goals and assists managed to actually see it and credited Hodgson with the primary assist. The combination of Salo’s massive shot from the point and Hodgson’s savvy playmaking has made the second-unit on the powerplay dangerous. Best of luck killing penalties against the Canucks once Kesler returns, rest of NHL.

The reason it’s surprising they saw Hodgson’s assist is that they managed to incorrectly credit Ryan Nugent-Hopkins with a hat trick. He scored his first on the powerplay as Daniel Sedin took two straight offensive-zone penalties. After Roberto Luongo robbed Nugent-Hopkins coming across the crease, the rookie managed to chip the rebound over Luongo’s pad. Nugent-Hopkins’ second goal came off a faceoff win by Manny Malhotra that the Oilers recovered immediately, making it look a lot more like a loss. Tom Gilbert’s shot from the point was perfectly tipped by Nugent-Hopkins on the backhand, sending it just over Luongo’s shoulder.

Nugent-Hopkins’ supposed hattrick goal was actually shoved in by Taylor Hall, but it seems unlikely they’ll change the goal now that such a fuss has been made. With Hansen in the box for his second unnecessary penalty of the game, Nugent-Hopkins threw the puck on net and the rest of the team swarmed the crease. After a couple deflections, the puck was on its way in as Hall gave it the final push. With an Ovechtrick defined as 9 goals, can we define a Nugetrick as 2?

Incidentally, the Oilers’ announcer probably should have waited until a stoppage in play to announce the first hattrick of Nugent-Hopkins career, as hats littered the ice while the Sedins were setting up in the offensive zone. Frustratingly, the fans were subsequently warned that any further debris on the ice would result in a minor being assessed to the Oilers. After the puck dropped again, another hat flew on to the ice: no penalty. Expect another tirade on hypocrites and pukes from Don Cherry.

Faceoffs were an issue all game for the Canucks. Malhotra was the only centre who finished above 50%, though a couple of his faceoff wins were quickly recovered by the Oilers. Hodgson and Lapierre both finished 3-for-10, with Lapierre losing all 6 of his defensive zone faceoffs. As much as Nugent-Hopkins was praised for his faceoffs constantly in this game, he actually had the worst faceoff percentage of any centre in the game, finishing 4-for-15.

The broadcasting team of Mark Lee and Daryl Reaugh may have been a little overenthusiastic with the superlatives for “the kids” in this game. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got more love in this game than Vince Carter. Luongo better ask Lee and Reaugh for his tire pump back. It wasn’t just Lee and Reaugh, however, as Scott Oake threw in a comparison to Wayne Gretzky (didja know Gretzky took longer than 3 games to score his first hattrick?) and spent almost an entire interview with Alex Burrows trying to elicit more praise for Nugent-Hopkins. In case you were still wondering, yes the Canucks won this game.

Here’s how: after Hodgson drew a tripping call, Ryan Smyth caught Sami Salo in the face with a high stick, sending the Canucks to a 5-on-3 powerplay. The Oilers actually played the 5-on-3 very well, playing high on Salo at the point, attempting to take away his big shot. It was the right move, as they blocked two of his shots before one fluttered through to Devan Dubnyk. The puck deflected off Dubnyk’s shoulder and bounced in front of Henrik, who caught it on the second hop, barely inching it over the goal line.

Then, after Nugent-Hopkins put the Oilers ahead again, Marco Sturm made an intelligent play with time running out in the second period, sending a wristshot on net and forcing Dubnyk to cover up for a faceoff in the offensive zone. Tom Renney made the baffling decision to send lumbering Andy Sutton and 27-year-old rookie Corey Potter out against the Sedins and Burrows for the final 24 seconds of the period. As much as I’d like to give credit to the Sedins for the subsequent beautiful play that led to the game-tying goal from Burrows, it’s simply indefensible to send your bottom pairing out against the Sedins.

The Canucks’ top-line makes Renney pay for his poor decision making: Horcoff actually wins the faceoff, but Burrows puts pressure on Potter, who gives the puck away to Henrik up the boards, who immediately sends it back around the boards to Daniel behind the net. Sutton is supposed to be checking Daniel, but instead makes the awful decision to chase him behind the net, giving Daniel obscene amounts of time and space to wheel out in front of the net. Meanwhile, Potter should be sticking with Burrows after his clearing attempt is cut off. Instead, he stops skating. Horcoff desperately tries to check Burrows, but can’t wrap up his stick in time.

The comeback was completed by none other than Sami Salo: it seems oddly fitting that in game where HNIC raved over “the kids”, it was the perpetually hospitalized 37-year-old that was the real star of the game, scoring two goals and an assist. His second goal, the gamewinner, was a slick wristshot after some great work by Chris Higgins on the forecheck. I love how Hodgson is whacking his stick on the ice like Kesler, trying to get the pass so he can score into the open net, but I especially love how Salo doesn’t bother winding up for a slap shot, but flings the puck on net as quickly as possible, seeming to catch Dubnyk completely off guard.

Finally, despite Hordichuk leaving the game ignominiously, this game still had plenty of rough stuff. Aaron “Ratburger” Volpatti chucked knuckles with Andy “So You’re An Expert” Sutton, in a great tilt that saw both get in some good punches. Dale Weise took a run at Eberle and immediately dropped the gloves with Theo Peckham when challenged for a solid fight. Marc Methot could take some pointers from Weise. But my favourite Dale Weise moment wasn’t his fight. It was when he “accidentally” fell on top of Dubnyk after being pushed by an Oiler defenceman: What are you doing? Stop pushing me towards your goalie! Oh no, we’re getting closer to your goalie, I might fall on him! Oh no, whoa! This is all your fault! Classic.

27 comments

The Bookie

Maplemusketeer

There is an outside chance that my favourite part of this game was IWTG

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Steven Ray Orr

October 16, 2011

“Ballard got set and lowered his hip into hi,” ; him, I presume.

But I understand, Ballard’s hips don’t just destroy hockey players, they also cause typos.

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Harrison Mooney

October 16, 2011

Ha. Got it, thanks, Steven.

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TheWellwoods

October 16, 2011

It took me a minute to figure out “ratburger” and then once I got it I felt stupid for not getting it sooner. New favourite nickname!

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DanD

October 16, 2011

Oh man, it took reading this comment for me to get it. Also love it!

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tom

October 16, 2011

man, the line about Luongo`s tire pump is hilarious!

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Jenny Wren

October 16, 2011

I pondered long the words to use
If it should be the Canucks lose:

(Vancouver versus Edmonton
It was a game they should have won
But which of course they didn’t do
The Oilers put ______ shots past Lu

Their record’s now one three and one
And though the season’s just begun
Me thinks there’s reason for concern
A distinct pattern I discern

It seems they always fall behind
For reasons that can be defined
There’s penalties and lethargy
A serious lack of urgency

And there’s the fact they cannot score
As they once did in days of yore)

But things are never quite the same
As in this most exciting game:

It didn’t happen early on;
Oil didn’t score with Hansen gone.
Then Burrows took a classic dive,
And Nucks scored first in this game five.
Still after one the Oilers led
“They’re fun to watch,” the Hot Stove said.

(The Maple Leafs are three and O;
The Avs have won four in a row.
On Sportsnet now behold the score:
The Rangers lead fifteen to four.)

Then back again on CBC
The Canucks score while five on three.
(Gone from the game is Hordichuk,
‘Twas four the number of the truck!)

Far too much time’s spent in the box;
The Nucks have only fifteen shots.
Ergo they’re down three goals to two,
‘Til Burrows does as he’s wont to do.

The third is tense as it should be,
Because the game is tied at three.
‘Tis end to end until the score
Has now the Nucks ahead with four.

Higgins is sometimes ever’where,
(As early on was Lapierre).
Malhotra too’s deserving praise:
One has to love the way he plays.

I’ll say we won for just this reason:
We played as we played last season.
You see now it’s “we” I use
It’s often “they” if we should lose.

Jenny Wren

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peanutflower

October 16, 2011

Classic
But… I know the “dive” you’re saying Burrows took that resulted in Smyth getting a penalty, and no way was that a dive. Burrows jumped right up and continued on. Smyth tried to argue it, but that was a trip. Isn’t a dive when the player lays around on the ice until the refs notice them? Don’t resort to promulgating the “Canucks are divers” misconception just to fill up your pentameter.

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jenny wren

October 16, 2011

Give Burrows the credit he is due
He dove and it is nothing new
But he is back up right away
Just in case there is further play

I think it’s not pentameter. Except for, “I’ll say we won for just this reason”, (a line which I screwed up. “Just” just has to go.) the lines are a struggling iambic quadrameter. Otherwise you may be right. Smith may have put him on the ice. And as a Canuck fan, I should not promulgate that which may not be true of the players.

Cheers
JW

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JS Topher

October 16, 2011

did we just get regular, non poetic, everyday, run of the mill dialogue from one of the flock???

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madwag

October 16, 2011

“Watch closer”? “Watch more closely”, please. It sounds so much better and is, of course, grammatically correct. Don’t contribute to the extinction of adverbs as most media folk habitually do.

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J21

October 16, 2011

I think you mean, “as most media folk habitual do”.

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madwag

October 18, 2011

If only i were that clever! But I’m just an old and opinionated retired English teacher.

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Geoff

October 16, 2011

For the most hated team in the league there sure were an awful lot of Canuck fans at that game.

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Canuckles

October 16, 2011

According to Mark Lee and the CBC, this write up on the Canucks by a Canucks fan didn’t have nearly enough about Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

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warren

October 16, 2011

i thought Hodgsxpson had a good game too. (the xp is silent too) He kind of got lost in the media coverage for RNH.

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Harrison Mooney

October 16, 2011

Hahaha! This joke has unlimited possibilities. I hope you don’t mind if we beat it to death over the next six months.

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Hanky Doodle Dandy

October 16, 2011

Hordi backs it-up
Slurp Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
Salo scores Nuge-Trick

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Colby Day

October 16, 2011

Definitely caught a few “That Fiesty Fin” remarks from the announcers, starting to think they just gave up on pronouncing his name?

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C

October 16, 2011

My favourite part of the GWG is when Barker, who had lost his stick, saw that Salo had the puck so he tackled Chris Higgins to the ice. Clearly, Barker was anticipating a Salo slap shop and was worried for Higgins’ safety, standing in front of the net like that, so he dove to protect him. That’s some heart-warming stuff.

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Reece

October 16, 2011

A think we should keep in mind is that Burrows’ first hattrick came off of a “phantom” third goal too…

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DanD

October 16, 2011

I know this will never stick, because “hips” is already a good nickname. But after that hit on hordichuk, I kept wanting to call Ballard “Sunshine,” because it looked remarkably similar to the hit that Sunshine puts on the opposing rusher in “Remember the Titans.” I would link to it, but I could only find it in German.

Also, how about Maxim Lapierre pulling those ridiculous moves and then forgetting how to shoot the puck? I was so pumped when he beat his man, but then he just froze and looped a little wrister into Dubnyk’s chest. Poor guy!

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Pablo

October 16, 2011

You forgot to mention that (besides Hodgson who you didn’t fail to leave out… at all) the Canucks will be on a steady decline from this season where the Oilers are on an rapid increase. That is all.

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Daniel Wagner

October 16, 2011

How long have the Oilers been on a rapid increase?

While I don’t disagree that the Oilers have a promising group of young forwards that are just a year or two from being very, very good, they still don’t have anyone to play defence. That’s a bit of an issue.

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DanD

October 16, 2011

Also having two lines of great promising youngsters doesn’t give you a great team. Defense and checking lines can’t be completely spare parts.

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